Lunchbreak: Vikings Earn B+ Grade for Win over Texans

[Viktor]

Happy "Victory Monday," Vikings fans.


Minnesota notched its first win of the season at Houston on Sunday. CBS Sports' John Breech gave the Vikings a B+ for their performance that included a trio of playmakers on offense and a defense stout in the red zone. He wrote:


With 0-4 staring them straight in the face, the Vikings went to Houston and gave one of their best offensive performances of the season. Dalvin Cook steamrolled through the Texans defense for 130 yards and two touchdowns, but more importantly, the Vikings passing game looks to be back on track. For the second straight week, rookie receiver Justin Jefferson proved to be a key weapon for Kirk Cousins as he caught four passes for 103 yards. Adam Thielen also came up big for Minnesota with 114 receiving yards and a touchdown. The ability of the Vikings offense to keep Houston's defense guessing in this game was a huge factor in Minnesota's success, especially in the red zone, where the Vikings came away with four touchdowns on five trips.


The Vikings now share a 1-3 record with the division-rival Lions, who fell 35-29 to a Saints squad without star receiver Michael Thomas. Breech gave Detroit a D grade for an outing in which the team "jumped out to an early double-digit lead and then completely fell apart."


This collapse was a team fail. Defensively, the Lions gave up five straight touchdown drives to New Orleans after picking off Drew Brees on the first play of the game. The Lions secondary got dissected by Brees, who had struggled through the first three weeks of the season. The Lions offense also disappeared after jumping out to an early 14-0 lead. One of the biggest mistakes of the game for Detroit came fromMatthew Stafford, who threw an ugly interception in the end zone midway through the second quarter. After that pick, the Lions didn't get near the Saints end zone again until the third quarter was almost over.


The Bears, who moved to 3-1, also received a D for their loss to the Colts.


Breech pointed out that Chicago's defense is a "top-10 unit in the league" and held the Indianapolis offense to under 275 yards, "which should be good enough to win a game."


Here's the problem – the offense wasn't any better under Nick Foles than it was [with] Mitchell Trubisky. Chicago failed to score an offensive touchdown in Foles' first start until the Colts went into soft coverage late in the fourth quarter, a hard task since the former Super Bowl MVP faced the No. 1 ranked defense in points and yards allowed and the No. 1 pass defense – in typical Chicago October weather. Foles finished with less than 250 yards passing and was not good outside of a drive where he went 5-for-6 for 82 yards – which led to the Bears only points. Foles will still be Chicago's quarterback, but this was a bad first start and wasn't helped by [Head Coach] Matt Nagy's questionable play calling.


The Packers will face the Falcons as part of the Monday Night Football double-header. Kickoff is scheduled for 7:50 p.m. (CT).